Five Sentenced in Israel for Attacking Hospital over Autopsy

March 10, 1967

TEL AVIV (Mar. 9)

A Tel Aviv district court sentenced to four months’ imprisonment today five members of a religious settlement at Revaha, who rioted last May in Kaplan Hospital at Rehovot in protest against an autopsy performed in the hospital on the body of a Revaha settler.

In passing sentence, the judge noted the “gravity” of the behavior of the defendants in attacking hospital personnel. He declined to discuss the motives for the settlers’ action, declaring that the issue of post-mortems was not within the competence of his court. The issue has evoked widespread protests among Israel’s Orthodox Jews.